Torcher

July 18 - 25, 1 9 9 6 [Off the Record]

**1/2 Torcher

YOUR WORD AGAINST FIRE

(Tim Kerr)

"Drinking just champagne/Eating just cake/Isn't life great" -- those are the idyllic words Paula Keyth sings on the opening track of Your Word Against Fire. But the dark grind of former Bostonian Kevin Friedman's guitar and the ominous emphasis Keyth places on every syllable tells a different story: one that doesn't seem to have a happy ending. That dichotomy, between what's stated in the lyrics and what's implied by their delivery accounts for the poetic tension that this group from Portland, Oregon, achieve when all the pieces fall into place.

That doesn't always happen on Your Word Against Fire. Keyth, who also plays bass, and Friedman are both strong musicians, and Keyth has a big, gutsy voice that creates a dynamic similar to the one that used to fuel Concrete Blonde. Like that band, Torcher sometimes strain too hard to create haunting atmospheres that require more subtlety and less metallic riffing. But when they get the balance between muscle and melody right, on the hard-hitting rocker "Cake and Champagne" and the smoldering ballad "Losing You," it's easy to forgive them the awkward Alice in Chains-style excess of a song like "Underwater."

-- Matt Ashare

(Torcher come to the Middle East this Tuesday, July 23.)